Eydie Gormé

Eydie Gormé(Edith Gormezano),
(born Aug. 16, 1928, Bronx, N.Y.—died Aug. 10, 2013, Las Vegas, Nev.), American singer who used her amazing vocal range to sing sophisticated pop interpretations (together with her husband, Steve Lawrence) of the easy-listening tunes of such American songwriters as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; the duo’s renditions helped preserve the “Great American Songbook.” Gormé, who started performing when she was three years old, began her career as a big-band singer but got her professional break (1953) on television—as a regular on Steve Allen’s Tonight! (later The Tonight Show). Prior to marrying (1957) Lawrence, Gormé established a solo career with such hits as “Too Close for Comfort” (1956), “Mama, Teach Me to Dance” (1956), and “Love Me Forever” (1957), which was also a hit in the U.K. As a couple, they starred in a 1958 summer replacement TV series, which was billed as Steve Allen Presents the Steve Lawrence–Eydie Gormé Show, into which they incorporated duets, lively banter, and comedy sketches, all of which also served as linchpins of their popular long-running Las Vegas act. They won a Grammy Award for best performance by a vocal group for the title track of their first duo album, We Got Us (1960), and after releasing the album Together on Broadway (1967), they costarred on “the Great White Way” in Golden Rainbow (1968). As a solo artist, Gormé earned her greatest American success with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” (1963), which also became a crossover Spanish-language smash hit, as did “Amor” (1964). Gormé released additional Spanish-language albums and recorded Broadway show-tune hits, notably “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?,” and “If He Walked into My Life,” for which she won a Grammy for best female vocal performance. Following the peak (1950s–’60s) of Gormé and Lawrence’s commercial success, they stayed busy by recording tribute albums to Gershwin and Porter, and they collected a 1979 Emmy Award for their musical special Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin. Gormé retired in 2009.

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